


We Were Exploding Anyway

by cosmicmilktea



Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ, Super Junior
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, Giant robots and repressed feelings Oh My, Hints of Heeteuk, M/M, Mentions of JYJ, SM Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-16
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2019-04-23 19:03:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14339028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmicmilktea/pseuds/cosmicmilktea
Summary: They’ve been inside each other’s head for fifteen years. Yunho thinks he’d probably have known by now if Changmin loves him.Right?(Pacific Rim AU)





	We Were Exploding Anyway

                                                                                 

 

The siren blares, echoing throughout the concrete structure around them and bathing the back of his eyelids a flashing red as Yunho rolls over from his bunk and grins.

“Changminnie!” He yells, pulls on a shirt, and rattles the bunk above him.

“It’s a Category 3” Yunho tries to keep the excitement from his voice because Changmin absolutely hates it when he gets excited for a Kaiju ( _“That thing probably destroyed an island on the way here, Hyung. Try to sound less happy”_ ), but it must have bled through anyway as the other man groans in exasperation, long limbs flailing to push him away even as he rolls to a sitting position.

“Ugh” Changmin sounds utterly disgusted as he runs a hand across his face “What time is it? Is it even _three_? Who the fuck pops out of a Breach at three in the morning?”

Yunho only grins back.

 

*

 

They suit up in no time, movements almost second nature now – Even half asleep. Metal clicks against metal and Yunho lets the routine lull him, relishes how the familiar row of snaps reverberate against his spine.

“Sorry for waking you up at this hour, boys“ Jungsoo’s voice pipes into their comms, and Yunho can see the chief LOCCENT officer in the screen, hair impeccably styled despite it being 2 AM.

"Please, as if you ever call us at a reasonable hour” Yunho winks, just in time for the Marshall and his very own best friend to appear behind him – Lipstick in place and wavy hair seemingly in competition with Jungsoo’s for some style award or some shit. Sometimes, Yunho wonders if both of them even sleeps anymore. Wonders if it’s some J-tech secret that enables them to just go on and on at all hours.

“Rangers, this is Marshal Kwon Bo Ah” Boa’s clipped tones replaces Jungsoo’s – All business now that she is on the deck and not half-drunk in some unused hangar lift like she had been just a few hours ago “Prepare for neural handshake”

“Ready to step into my head, Changdol-ah?” Yunho turns to his left side as Jungsoo starts his countdown, the lights blinking all around them in sequence.

“Please, after you” Changmin smirks, eyes uneven with both mirth and the residue of sleep “Age before beauty, Hyung”

They laugh throughout Boa’s irritated chiding, Yunho closing his eyes as Jungsoo hits one and they _drift_.

It still takes his breath away, even after all this time. For one split second, he is weightless, floating, soaring and then -

And then the combined rush of memories – His and Changmin’s – hits him like a battering ram, surges, pulls him under before he resurfaces, finds, _finds_ his place as he finds Changmin and Changmin finds him.

Changmin’s mind is a familiar landscape of neat, orderly smoothness – Carefully open and welcoming, a veritable safety net that Yunho lands on every time. He envelops Changmin’s memories with his own, sounds and colors intertwining like fingers until all he can feel is the soft thrum of them and he can’t help but smile.

“Neural handshake strong and holding. Axis Cassiopeia ready for launch”

Yunho can feel Changmin’s smile echo his as they land, knees bending to brace against the impact, the ocean roaring all around them even through the thick steel of their Conn-pod.

“Ready?” Yunho bellows, although he has no need to. Because he can feel Changmin inside his head - A calm, steely surface of determination and focus that he melds into, _becomes_. Changmin is always ready and so they are always ready.

They’re the oldest pair of living Jaeger pilots in South Korea – _In the world_ \- and Yunho intends to keep it that way.

 

*

 

He first saw Shim Changmin when the other man was fifteen – Afraid and awkward with limbs that are too gangly and ears that are too big for his pale, pale face. Jaejoong, bless his heart, had taken one look at Changmin and loudly declared him his favorite dongsaeng, even as Junsu and Yoochun teases and ribs the boy to no end. And just like that, the five of them were inseparable.

The Jeju-Do shatterdome had been in its infancy back then – All unfinished structures and jammed bay doors and malfunctioning heaters as South Korea and the world grappled with technology they didn’t quite understand to fight something they didn’t quite understand either. Later on, Yunho thinks he watched Changmin grow up along the structure around him – Until one day the fifteen year old boy Yunho first met was nowhere to be found and Changmin is a man – half a head taller than him and the title _Ranger_ heavy around all their shoulders.

The five of them have always had an exceptionally high rate of drift compatibility with each other– An anomaly that did not go amiss for then Marshall Lee as they were shifted and rotated into every possible permutations. They survived every drop they’re assigned, became something of a rockstar as their kills mounted and it was _perfect_. Or as perfect as something can be in a world torn apart by monsters constantly crawling out of the sea.

Until, of course, it happened.

Yunho knows that at some point, their conditions were not exactly ideal. Aside from Jungsoo and Heechul’s Nova Sapphire, their Axis Cassiopeia was the only other active Jaeger in South Korea, often getting them shuttled back and forth to the Tokyo Shatterdome when the Japanese’s own Jaegers were under repairs. That particular period of time had been a hard one for Jaeger funding, public interest having fallen to an alarming low as more and more Jaeger fell while more and more Kaiju surfaced undaunted.

Yunho knows, knows how they all but rotated the bed in Jonghyun’s medical ward, how they slept in shifts so that someone could be awake beside the injured person while the other two risked their lives in another drop. How Junsu’s boisterous laughs pattered out and how Jaejoong’s right arm never quite went back to what it was, and he _knows_ , understands why his friends felt like staying was merely like signing a death warrant. And so Yunho didn’t scream, didn’t yell or grab Jaejoong’s arm as he packed away half of their shared quarters and left. As Junsu and Yoochun left with him and Yunho is alone in a room that suddenly felt too big, too empty.

But Changmin stayed.

Changmin, whose face was still very very young despite his broad shoulders, who slammed open the door to his room and grabbed his hand, pale face set into a mask of pure determination as the sirens blared all around them and Jungsoo shouts over the comms while Yunho just sat there like a fool.

But Changmin was in front of him and his hands were warm even though they trembled and trembled over his. And Yunho realized, right then, that Changmin had _stayed._ Realized the magnitude, the weight of it all.

“We can do this, Hyung. Come on”

Their neural handshake that night recorded a new high. Changmin’s been the only one inside his head ever since.

 

*

 

“Hyung“ Changmin’s irritated voice echoes from their supply closet of a bathroom “Did you squeeze the toothpaste from the middle again?”

Yunho chuckles, his own voice rough at the edges with exhaustion after their drop “We just saved the world, Changminnie, I’m sure no one will mind if I’m a bit liberal with our toothpaste”

“Well _I_ mind” The younger man huffs, unseen hand throwing a balled up shirt with unerring accuracy at his splayed figure. Yunho’s chuckle grows into a laugh, sleepy and warm with the familiarity of it all.

Boa had offered them separate lodgings once she took the Marshall mantle from old man Lee and had bartered, negotiated, and straight-up threatened for more appropriate funding. Bigger spaces, comfier beds, and an actual bathroom that wouldn’t require both men to veer sideways whenever they want to enter the shower – She’ll even make sure their quarters would be placed next to each other. After all, Boa had smiled, all teeth and perfectly-applied lipstick, they _are_ the oldest pair of living Jaeger pilots still in commission. It's only fair, Yunho-ah.

But it had been such a hassle to pack everything up, much less separate what belonged to him and what belonged to Changmin – Underwears and jackets and books and bottles upon bottles of products so essentially _theirs_ and not _mine_ or _his_ that even after weeks, the PPDC-issued cardboard boxes stay empty in a corner of their room before Changmin finally tidied it up and shoved the whole thing under their bunk.

There has been no talk of moving ever since.

Changmin, he realizes, is still muttering on from the bathroom, probably picking off the fatigues that Yunho had accidentally left strewn around the bathroom floor in his haste to get horizontal.

Yunho lets the familiar sounds lull him to sleep - half of his mind still in the state that is not his own but _theirs_ , and the last thing he remembers thinking is that he doesn’t want anything at all to ever change.

 

*

**Author's Note:**

> I got to know TVXQ when they're already a duo - Watching their live performances and being like whoa these two's drift compatibility must be off the charts!
> 
> Title is from 65daysofstatic's 2010 studio album title (Super super good album btw).


End file.
